death row

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Death Row Con Wins Hearing Over Courtroom Hanky Panky

Alleges affair between judge, prosecutor

(Newser) - A condemned Texas inmate has won a hearing to decide whether his lawyers can question the judge and prosecutor at his capital case trial about an alleged affair the two were having while the proceedings were unfolding, ABC News reports. A former county DA filed a sworn statement last year...

Ohio Killer: I'm Too Fat to Execute

He argues in lawsuit that executioners won't find a vein

(Newser) - A convicted killer and rapist on Ohio's death row is arguing in a lawsuit that he's too fat to be humanely executed. Lawyers for Richard Wade Cooey claim the 5'-7", 275-pound inmate is morbidly obese, and veins suitable for lethal injection would be difficult to find, reports the Columbus Post ...

Peterson Blog Sparks Outrage
 Peterson Blog Sparks Outrage 
Jul 18, 2008 7:29 PM CDT

Peterson Blog Sparks Outrage

Infrequent posts discuss his 'wrongful conviction' and support

(Newser) - Scott Peterson has a blog—of sorts. The death row inmate, convicted for the murder of his wife Laci and the fetus she carried, is posting his thoughts on a website set up by a Canadian anti-death penalty group, Radar reports. The occasional postings concern his appeal, his "wrongful...

Report: California Death Penalty in Critical Condition

Panel calls for reforms to clear massive execution backlog

(Newser) - California's capital punishment system is nearing collapse, according to a state commission. The time between sentencing and execution in the state is as long as 25 years—double the national average. The panel recommended California spend $100 million a year to hire more lawyers and clear the "overwhelmed" appeals...

Ohio Judge Rejects 3-Drug Lethal Injections

Orders state to change executions

(Newser) - An Ohio judge has ordered authorities to stop using a lethal three-drug cocktail for executions because it may cause excruciating pain. Instead,  the judge ruled in favor of a single lethal dose of a barbiturate used in animal euthanasia, the New York Times reports. State officials are reviewing the...

DC Sniper Demands End to Death-Row Appeals

'Murder this innocent black man,' he pleads

(Newser) - Convicted DC sniper John Allen Muhammad has called on prosecutors to help stop his attorneys from pursuing appeals to overturn his death sentence. Muhammad, convicted in the 2002 shooting spree that killed 10 strangers, said in a handwritten letter that any appeals “have been done against mine will,”...

Supreme Court Upholds Kentucky Lethal Injection

Ruling clears way for other states to resume capital punishment

(Newser) - By a vote of 7-2, the Supreme Court upheld today the use of lethal injection by a three-drug cocktail. Two death row inmates in Kentucky had charged that the method violated their Eighth Amendment right to be spared cruel and unusual punishment. The mix of drugs has been used in...

Court Skeptical of Challenge to Lethal Injection

Justices cite low chance of painful death, lack of better option

(Newser) - As the Supreme Court opened its hearing on lethal injection today, justices expressed serious doubts that the method amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, the LA Times reports. Most of the panel, including Chief Justice John Roberts, seemed unconvinced that the three-chemical cocktail results in a painful death, or that...

Death Penalty Details Withheld
Death Penalty Details Withheld
Jan 7, 2008 8:56 AM CST

Death Penalty Details Withheld

As high court weighs lethal injection, actual methods are shrouded in secrecy

(Newser) - With a landmark case coming before the Supreme Court today on lethal injection, the Los Angeles Times examines the unusual secrecy that shrouds the execution method. Defense lawyers who argue that it inflicts unnecessary pain are routinely blocked from information about executioners and the drugs injected. States say such information...

Pennsylvania Sticking With Death Penalty

Rash of court rulings back state on capital punishment

(Newser) - There have been only three executions in Pennsylvania since 1978, but four year-end rulings from the state's Supreme Court indicate the state won't be going the way of neighboring New Jersey, which abolished the death penalty,  any time soon, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The state's deputy attorney general stresses...

Murder Earns Few Women Death Penalty

Will slaughter of 6 family members draw capital punishment for Wash. woman?

(Newser) - With prosecutors still debating whether to seek the death penalty against Michele Anderson, charged in the murder of six members of her family on Christmas Eve, the Seattle Times looks at the odds that the Carnation, Wash., woman might actually be sentenced to death. Women rarely receive the death penalty,...

Executions Drop to 13-Year Low
Executions Drop to 13-Year Low
Dec 19, 2007 12:14 PM CST

Executions Drop to 13-Year Low

42 people put to death in '07; further decline could follow Court ruling

(Newser) - With the Supreme Court set to hear arguments Jan. 7 about lethal-injection procedures, figures show that US states executed just 42 people this year, a 13-year low. The case before the court has prompted states using lethal injection to execute inmates to stay pending executions; on Monday, New Jersey became...

NJ Closer to Banning Death Penalty
NJ Closer to Banning Death Penalty
Dec 10, 2007 5:51 PM CST

NJ Closer to Banning Death Penalty

Senators pass bill to nix it, and governor has vowed to sign

(Newser) - New Jersey senators nudged the state closer to a likely ban on capital punishment today, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. They passed a bill to nix the penalty by 21-16, sending it to expected approval in the assembly Thursday and signing by Governor Jon Corzine. New Jersey would become the first...

Texas Won't Halt Executions, Despite Stay

State will stick to schedule after Supreme Court ruling

(Newser) - Texas officials plan to go forward with death-row executions, even as other states put them on hold in the wake of the Supreme Court's last-minute stay for Carlton Turner earlier this week. More stays like Turner's are expected in Texas as the court deliberates on the legality of lethal injections,...

Supreme Court Will Take Up Lethal Injection

Constitutionality at issue; docket also includes voting rights

(Newser) - The Supreme Court will take up the constitutionality of lethal injections in what a public defender called one of the most critical death penalty cases “in decades.” The challenge stems from a 2004 suit by two Kentucky inmates on death row who charged that the method constitutes cruel...

Americans Losing Taste for Death Penalty

Capital sentences and executions slow as public attitudes change

(Newser) - Capital punishment seems to be dying a slow death in the US. As public sentiment shifts toward life sentences, the number of death sentences has dropped 60% since the mid-'90s and the number of executions has fallen 46% since 1999, reports the Economist. Then there’s Texas, which has carried...

Texas Gov. Spares Prisoner Hours Before Execution

Kenneth Foster was sentenced to death as accomplice to 1996 murder

(Newser) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry commuted a death-row prisoner's sentence to life imprisonment today, six hours before he was to die for his role in a 1996 murder. Kenneth Foster drove the getaway car in a robbery gone awry, and under Texas law was eligible for the death penalty. Perry, in...

Lay Judges to Join Bench in Japan
Lay Judges
to Join Bench
in Japan
Aug 25, 2007 8:38 AM CDT

Lay Judges to Join Bench in Japan

Will citizens temper Japan's courts, where 99.9% are found guilty?

(Newser) - Japan will give citizens the gavel in an effort to counteract its judicial system’s prejudice for presuming guilt. Six citizens and three trained jurists will sit on criminal cases, and the majority will rule, Bloomberg reports. The new system follows a clamor of criticism about forced confessions, inhumane treatment...

SD Carries Out 1st Execution in 60 Years

Man convicted in 2000 torture murder refused appeals, last words

(Newser) - South Dakota executed a prisoner last night for the first time since 1947. Officials administered a lethal injection to convicted murderer Elijah Page, who had pleaded guilty in 2001 to torturing and killing a 19-year-old acquaintance the year before, the Argus Leader reports. One of his two co-defendants remains on...

Courts Debate Definition of 'Retarded'

Ruling on death penalty's constitutionality generates more questions than answers

(Newser) - Sentencing the mentally retarded to death is unconstitutional, and individual states set the cut-off between disabled and competent—sounds simple, but in practice, the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling has proven nearly impossible to enforce. At issue, the LA Times reports, is the gray area between low IQ and retardation, a...

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